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International  Conciliation 


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Pi?  <9  TRIA  PER  ORB/S  CONCORDIAM 


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Published  Monthly  by  the 
American  Association  for  International  Conciliation 


AMERICAN  IGNORANCE  OF  ORIENTAL 

LANGUAGES 


BY 

j.  h.  deforest,  d.d„ 

Sendai,  Japan 

FEBRUARY,  1909,  NO.  15 

American  Association  for  International  Conciliation 
Sub-station  84  (501  West  1 16th  Street) 

New  York  City 


The  particular  objects  of  the  American  Association  for  Interna¬ 
tional  Conciliation  are  to  record,  preserve  and  disseminate  the 
history  of  organized  efforts  for  promoting  international  peace  and 
relations  of  comity  and  good  fellowship  between  nations,  to  print 
and  circulate  documents  and  otherwise  to  aid  individual  citizens,  the 
newspaper  press,  and  organizations  of  various  kinds  to  obtain  ac¬ 
curate  information  and  just  views  upon  these  subjects;  and  to  pro¬ 
mote  in  all  practicable  ways  mutual  understanding  and  good  feeling 
between  the  American  people  and  those  of  other  nations. 

Up  to  the  limit  of  the  editions  printed,  copies  of  the  following 
documents,  published  by  the  Association,  will  be  sent  post-paid 
upon  application: 

1.  Program  of  the  Association,  by  Baron  d’Estournelles  de  Constant.  April, 

1907. 

2.  Results  of  the  National  Arbitration  and  Peace  Congress,  by  Andrew  Car¬ 
negie.  April,  1907. 

3.  A  League  of  Peace,  by  Andrew  Carnegie.  November,  1907. 

4.  The  results  of  the  Second  Hague  Conference,  by  Baron  d’Estournelles  de 
Constant  and  Hon.  David  Jayne  Hill.  January,  1908. 

5.  The  Work  of  the  Second  Hague  Conference,  by  James  Brown  Scott.  Jan¬ 
uary,  1908. 

6.  Possibilities  of  Intellectual  Co-operation  Between  North  and  South  America, 
by  L.  S.  Rowe.  April,  1908. 

7.  America  and  Japan,  by  George  Trumbull  Ladd.  June,  1908. 

8.  The  Sanction  of  International  Law,  by  Elihu  Root.  July,  1908. 

9.  The  United  States  and  France,  by  Barrett  Wendell.  August,  1908. 

10.  The  Approach  of  the  Two  Americas,  by  Joaquim  Nabuco.  September, 

1908. 

11.  The  United  States  and  Canada,  by  J.  S.  Willison.  October,  1908. 

12.  The  Policy  of  the  United  States  and  Japan  in  the  Far  East.  November, 
1908. 

13.  European  Sobriety  in  the  Presence  of  the  Balkan  Crisis,  by  Charles  Austin 
Beard.  December,  1908. 

14.  The  Logic  of  International  Co-operation,  by  F.  W.  Hirst.  January,  1909. 

15.  American  Ignorance  of  Oriental  Languages,  by  J.  H.  DeForest.  Feb¬ 
ruary,  1909. 

American  Association  for  International  Conciliation 


Sub-station  84,  New  York 


Executive  Committee 


Nicholas  Murray  Butler 
Richard  Bartholdt 
Lyman  Abbott 
James  Speyer 


Richard  Watson  Gilder 
Stephen  Henry  Olin 
Seth  Low 
Robert  A.  Franks 


AMERICAN  IGNORANCE  OF  ORIENTAL 

LANGUAGES 

There  is  no  world  problem  that  looms  up  so  large 
as  the  coming  relations  between  the  East  and  the 
West.  It  is  above  all  and  beyond  all  the  greatest 
problem  that  ever  confronted  the  human  race.  It 
is  one  that  involves  profound  changes  not  only  in 
diplomacy  but  in  popular  thinking.  It  affects  as  no 
other  problem  ever  has  the  action  of  governments 
and  of  the  peoples  under  those  governments.  And 
it  looks  as  though  the  burden  of  the  solution  of 
this  magnificently  great  problem,  so  far  as  the  West 
is  concerned,  must  fall  mainly  upon  the  United  States 
government  and  the  people  of  our  Great  Republic. 

In  helping  on  the  right  and  righteous  solution  of 
the  many  problems  that  arise  from  the  coming  to¬ 
gether  of  the  great  East  and  the  great  West,  I 
desire  to  submit  just  one  line  of  practical  aid  in 
knowing  and  understanding  one  another. 

It  is  by  knowing  the  other  s  language.  One  can  faintly 
imagine  the  fearful  responsibility  of  Ii  Kamon  no 
Kami,  the  Premier  of  the  Shogunate,  when  Commo¬ 
dore  Perry  came.  He  had  to  make  some  kind  of  a 
humiliating  treaty  with  those  “  Western  barbarians” 
of  whose  language  and  intentions  he  could  know 
nothing,  or  else  involve  his  country  in  a  disastrous 
war.  The  dilemma  forced  from  him  this  lamenta¬ 
tion  : — 

“  Nothing  is  worse  than  a  barrier  to  the 
Communication  of  thought.” 

It  is  just  this  vast  vague  barrier  that  exists  be¬ 
tween  the  East  and  the  West,  and  that  constitutes 
a  standing  peril — ignorance  of  the  other’s  language. 
Here  are  two  historic  civilizations  with  different  po¬ 
litical,  social,  religious  evolutions,  and  with  languages 
and  customs  widely  alien  to  each  other.  These 
millions  upon  millions  of  human  beings  in  the  two 


3 


hemispheres  have  been  brought  into  dose  contact 
by  commerce,  by  diplomacy,  by  the  missionary  world 
movement,  and  by  the  press  that  now  every  morning 
gathers  up  all  the  significant  events  of  the  nations 
into  one  column  of  news. 

This  whole  world  of  human  beings  is  now  in  closer 
geographical  and  intellectual  touch  with  each  and 
every  part  of  itself  than  any  one  nation  was  with 
itself  a  hundred  years  ago.  And  yet  collossal  misun¬ 
derstandings  have  arisen  between  these  two  halves 
that  have  bred  ill  will  and  suspicions  and  wars,  until 
now,  in  spite  of  the  Hague  and  other  peace  move¬ 
ments,  statesmen  and  scholars  are  found  who  allow 
themselves  to  go  on  record  as  predicting  that  a  bigger 
war  than  the  world  has  ever  seen,  one  that  “will 
shake  the  earth,”  is  inevitable  between  the  yellows 
and  the  whites. 

Now  the  first  great  duty  of  both  sides  is  to  get  into 
proper  shape  to  understand  each  other,  and  there  is 
no  other  way  of  knowing  each  other  more  essential 
than  that  of  knowing  the  other’s  language. 

This  Association  of  International  Conciliation  has 
for  one  of  its  aims  “To  encourage  the  study  of 
foreign  languages.”  This  is  absolutely  imperative, 
and  it  is  just  here  that  the  United  States  is  absolutely 
weak.  We  are  comparatively  rich  in  peace  move¬ 
ments;  in  our  power  to  push  arbitration;  in  gifted 
and  sympathetic  statesmen;  in  misisonary  work;  in 
our  “American  Diplomacy  in  the  Orient,”  as  the 
Honorable  J.  W.  Foster  has  shown;  and  in  our  gen¬ 
erous  welcome  of  Eastern  students  to  our  universities. 
But  we  are  almost  helpless  when  it  comes  to  first  hand 
knowledge  of  the  East  through  the  languages  thereof. 

And  it  is  this  almost  universal  ignorance  on  our 
part  of  the  language  and  literature  and  history  and 
ideals  of  Japan,  that  made  possible  that  wave  of  sus¬ 
picion  and  distrust  that  so  largely  captured  the  atten¬ 
tion  of  both  our  government  and  our  people  for  over 
a  year.  Had  our  government’s  military  attaches  in 
Manchuria,  our  naval  officers  on  duty  in  the  East,  our 


4 


war  correspondents,  our  secret  service  men,  our  con¬ 
sular  and  commercial  agents,  and  our  diplomatic 
agents,  as  a  rule  been  conversant  with  the  Japanese 
language,  the  margin  for  misunderstandings  would 
have  been  greatly  narrowed.  And  then,  had  each  of 
our  representative  papers  and  magazines  even  one 
writer  capable  of  translating  at  sight  Japanese  papers 
and  giving  their  important  contents  to  the  public, 
they  could  have  spoken  with  authority  and  prevented 
the  larger  part  of  the  wretched  stuff  too  many  of  our 
papers  printed  about  Japan  and  her  intentions.  I  do 
not  claim  that  all  misunderstandings  would  thus  be 
avoided,  but  I  do  fearlessly  assert  that  until  we  have 
a  large  body  of  competent  Oriental  linguists  con¬ 
nected  with  our  press  we  are  shamefully  helpless  to 
prevent  the  spread  of  all  kinds  of  mischievous  misun¬ 
derstandings  and  even  of  intentional  falsehoods. 

Let  me  give  one  illustration  that  I  have  already 
published  elsewhere.  About  a  year  ago,  a  correspon¬ 
dent  of  a  New  York  paper  in  Hawaii  learned  that  the 
Japanese  there  at  a  great  gathering  on  one  of  their 
national  holidays  listened  with  profound  attention  to 
the  reading  of  some  Imperial  Rescript,  and  he  managed 
to  get  this  sentence: — “In  case  of  emergency  give 
yourselves  courageously  to  the  State.”  He  at  once 
wired  his  paper  that  the  ex-soldiers  of  Japan  had  just 
received  an  order  from  their  Emperor  to  be  ready  for 
any  emergency,  and  that  this  could  have  no  other 
meaning  than  getting  ready  for  an  attack  on  the 
United  States!  When  this  was  duly  and  impressively 
published,  the  New  York  paper  was  informed  by  a 
lady  who  had  long  lived  in  Japan  as  a  teacher  in  one 
of  the  highest  schools  for  girls  in  Japan,  that  this 
Rescript  was  promulgated  in  1891  for  especial  use  in 
educational  work,  that  it  is  read  on  national  holidays  in 
all  the  schools  of  the  Empire,  including  mission  schools, 
and  that  in  a  place  like  Hawaii  where  are  some  60,000 
Japanese  laborers,  it  is  a  most  natural  thing  to  have 
this  moral  Rescript  read.  Yet  her  letter  of  explana¬ 
tion  never  appeared  in  the  paper. 


5 


Among  our  press  writers  of  the  last  year,  while  of 
course  there  were  multitudes  who  took  no  stock  in  the 
war  agitation  against  Japan,  and  hundreds  who  wrote 
with  deep  sincerity  against  the  jingoes,  yet  they  were 
almost  powerless  to  prevent  the  evil  thinking  which 
the  sensational  press  inspired  by  such  heavy  headlines 
as  these: — “Japan  Made  Warlike  Threat  to  Act 
Against  California”;  “The  Yellow  Peril,  Its 
Headquarters  on  this  Continent”;  “Japan  a 
Menace  to  American  Civilization”;  “Says  War 
of  Races  Will  Shake  the  Earth.” 

No  matter  how  much  our  Taft  and  Wright  and 
O’Brien — men  who  knew — said  war  was  “unthinkable” 
and  “not  even  respectable  nonsense,”  these  and 
similar  headlines  were  kept  up  with  such  persistency 
that  many  honest  minds  were  bewildered.  One  paper 
at  last  said: — “We  wish  it  were  possible  to  find  the 
fountain  of  falsehoods  and  guesses  worse  than  false¬ 
hood  from  which  the  press  of  the  world  is  kept 
misinformed  as  to  the  actual  relations  between  this 
country  and  Japan.” 

Well,  it  seems  to  me  that  one  fountain  of  these 
falsehoods  is  the  almost  absolute  inability  of  our  press 
to  get  at  facts  first  hand,  because  of  the  ignorance 
on  the  part  of  our  influential  writers  of  the  language 
of  Japan.  Our  government  is  slowly  waking  up  to 
the  need  of  a  body  of  trained  interpreters,  and  six 
students  were  appointed  last  year  to  study  under  our 
Embassy  in  Tokyo.  Our  military  department  also,  I 
believe,  is  represented  by  a  few  officers  who  are  study¬ 
ing  Japanese.  I  wonder  how  many,  or  rather  how 
few,  of  the  hundreds  of  officers  of  our  fleet  who  were 
so  splendidly  welcomed  and  entertained  in  Japan, 
could  carry  on  a  conversation  with  their  accomplished 
hosts. 

Our  government  has  only  a  few  trained  Japanese 
interpreters  of  whose  work  we  may  justly  be  proud. 
But  a  great  and  neighboring  nation  like  ours,  upon 
whom  rests  the  exceedingly  difficult  and  delicate 
responsibility  of  exactly  understanding  every  depart- 

6 


ment  of  national  life  in  Japan,  might  well  have  scores 
of  able  university  students  living  here  and  studying  in 
the  language  of  this  people  not  only  their  diplomacy, 
but  their  system  of  laws,  education,  morals,  family 
life,  religion,  business  methods,  their  local  self-govern¬ 
ment,  their  monuments  and  history  and  art,  and  all 
that  goes  to  make  up  that  unique  spirit  of  Japan 
called  Yamato  Damashii.  And  if  we  had  other  scores 
similarly  equipped  with  the  language  in  Hawaii  and  on 
the  Pacific  Coast  and  in  New  York,  to  work  in  our 
customs  and  police  offices  and  as  judges  in  our  courts, 
and  to  become  possible  candidates  for  our  House  of 
Representatives,  we  should  be  in  a  far  better  condition 
to  meet  the  inevitable  frictions  and  suspicions  and  mis¬ 
representations  that  ceaselessly  tend  to  arise  between 
two  such  mutually  different  peoples.  There  is  no  ex¬ 
penditure  of  government  money,  in  my  judgment, 
more  necessary  to  a  right  understanding  of  the  prob¬ 
lems  to  be  solved,  and  none  that  would  be  more 
productive  of  abiding  goodwill. 

But  our  people  should  not  await  any  action  of  the 
government.  Our  universities  should  take  steps  at 
once  to  make  connection  with  the  universities  of 
Japan  for  the  purpose  of  having  scores  of  fellowships 
established  here,  where  our  gifted  graduates  can 
study  the  language,  literature,  the  customs  and  ideals 
of  the  people,  in  order  that,  after  their  return,  there 
may  be  in  our  country  a  competent  body  of  scholars 
to  write  for  our  press  and  to  give  authoritative  inter¬ 
pretations  of  facts  to  the  people.  This  is  the  one 
necessary  step  to  take  in  international  education. 
Every  leading  paper  should  have  one  such  trained 
writer  on  its  staff,  and  then  our  press  would  reflect 
with  accuracy  Japanese  public  opinion.  It  is  a  pleas¬ 
ure  to  say  that  I  know  of  four  of  our  universities  that 
are  considering  with  favor  this  plan. 

Some  of  our  universities  have  already  done  valuable 
work  in  two  ways:  by  employing  Japanese  professors 
to  lecture  on  things  Japanese,  and  by  encouraging  the 
coming  of  students  from  the  East  to  our  institutions. 

7 


This  is  admirable,  but  any  one  can  see  that  it  is  one 
sided.  There  is  just  as  much  need,  in  view  of  press¬ 
ing  twentieth  century  problems,  for  us  to  have  post¬ 
graduate  students  at  work  in  eastern  universities,  as 
for  the  East  to  have  her  choice  young  men  in  western 
universities. 

Both  as  a  government  and  as  a  people  we  are  far 
behind  Japan  in  this  essential  step  towards  mutual 
understanding.  She  has  for  decades  called  the  United 
States  her  teacher;  and  the  wide  welcome  we  have 
given  her  students  in  all  our  institutions,  and  the 
inspiration  our  political  and  educational  and  commer¬ 
cial  systems  has  given  her,  make  us  somewhat  worthy 
of  the  high  appellation  of  teacher.  But  has  not  the 
time  come  for  us  to  return  the  compliment  and  take 
Japan  for  our  teacher?  I  affirm  unhesitatingly  that 
there  is  no  government  and  people  in  the  world  that  under¬ 
stands  all  the  nations  as  well  as  Japan  does. 

Just  as  soon  as  she  began  to  get  on  her  feet  after 
the  shock  of  forced  treaties  with  “Western  bar¬ 
barians,”  she  set  herself  the  task  of  learning  every¬ 
thing  possible  about  other  peoples.  The  significant 
words  of  the  Imperial  Oath  taken  at  the  Restoration, 
— “We  Shall  Seek  for  Knowledge  Throughout 
the  Whole  World” — has  been  a  ceaseless  inspiration 
to  this  open  minded  people.  The  government  has 
sent  year  after  year,  and  still  keeps  it  up,  her 
choicest  students  and  officials  to  every  nation  to 
study  it  in  every  department  of  social,  political,  com¬ 
mercial,  and  moral  life,  and  then  to  bring  back  the 
knowledge  gained  for  the  use  of  the  government 
and  for  the  education  of  the  people. 

But  we  of  the  Great  Republic,  with  our  inexhausti¬ 
ble  resources  and  institutions,  and  with  our  world 
language  into  which  is  translated  pretty  much  all  the 
wisdom  of  all  times  and  places,  we  seem  so  satisfied 
with  our  own  priceless  intellectual  treasures  that  we 
are  apt  to  be  dominated  by  the  thought,  “We  are  IT. 
If  you  want  to  learn  anything  come  to  us  and  we  will 
teach  you.  If  you  have  anything  worth  knowing, 

8 


bring  it  along  and  translate  it  into  English,  and  then 
we  will  examine  it  at  our  convenience.” 

This  thought  unconsciously  controls  much  of  our 
attitude  towards  the  East.  We  have  been  thought¬ 
lessly,  if  not  cruelly,  taught  to  think  of  the  peoples  of 
the  East  as  “heathen,”  and  we  give  little  credit  to 
their  civilization  of  millenniums.  We  have  a  tendency 
to  think  of  them  as  immoral,  counting  of  little  value 
their  morality  that  has  conserved  them  for  ages,  ele¬ 
ments  of  which  morality  we  may  well  incorporate  into 
our  Christian  civilization.  We  have  hardly  taken  the 
trouble  to  ask  what  is  the  secret  of  their  persistence 
and  power,  unless  startling  success  in  war  has  forced 
us  to  begin  to  inquire. 

This  attitude  is  apparent  wherever  we  meet  Orien¬ 
tals.  We  expect  them  to  use  our  language  whether 
in  their  own  country  or  in  ours.  We  show  them 
plainly  that  we  have  no  interest  in  their  language. 
We  indulge  in  fatherly  admiration  of  their  use  of 
English,  never  raising  the  question  whether  we  have 
any  obligation  to  learn  to  speak  their  language,  nor 
feeling  anything  of  shame  in  our  attitude  of  lofty 
superiority. 

This  came  out  in  the  welcome  meeting  given  by  the 
Japan  Society  in  New  York  to  Baron  Takahira,  on  his 
appointment  to  the  United  States  as  Ambassador. 
At  this  meeting  of  over  three  hundred  ladies  and 
gentlemen  of  both  nationalities,  the  Baron  made  an 
able  address  in  English  on  the  relations  between  Japan 
and  the  United  States.  Then  Senator  Depew  was 
called  upon  for  a  speech,  and  among  other  things  he 
said,  “It  is  astonishing  to  hear  this  statesman  from 
distant  Japan  addressing  us  in  stately  language  fit  for 
our  senatorial  hall.”  I  wished  he  had  gone  on  from 
admiration  of  the  Ambassador’s  English  to  the 
humiliation  we  ought  to  feel  in  view  of  the  fact  that 
we  never  have  had,  with  the  exception  of  one  regular- 
interpreter  in  our  Legation,  an  officer  in  diplomatic 
or  consular  service  in  Japan  who  could  address  in 


9 


scholarly  Japanese  a  company  of  ladies  and  gentlemen 
such  as  welcomed  the  Baron. 

I  happened  to  be  present  at  the  reception  tendered 
by  the  Japanese  residing  in  New  York  to  Baron  Saka- 
tani  in  the  spring  of  1908.  There  was  present  about 
an  equal  number  of  Americans  and  Japanese.  Of  the 
five  after  dinner  speeches  by  Dr.  J.  Takamine,  Baron 
Takahira,  Baron  Sakatani,  the  Consul  General,  and  a 
prominent  banker,  all  but  the  Banker’s  were  in  Eng¬ 
lish,  out  of  respect  to  their  American  guests.  I  could 
not  but  think  that  had  a  similar  welcome  been  given 
in  Yokohama  by  American  merchants  and  officials  re¬ 
siding  there,  out  of  five  speeches  by  Americans  to 
their  Japanese  guests,  there  would  be  just  five  in 
English. 

To  go  on  with  this  comparison,  it  may  be  said  that 
of  the  thirty  Honorary  Commercial  Commissioners 
from  the  Pacific  Coast  who  visited  Japan  last  fall,  not 
one  could  speak  Japanese.  English  speaking  Japanese 
met  them  and  accompanied  them  everywhere.  Even 
in  the  interior  towns  there  were  officials  and  business 
men  who  welcomed  them  in  English,  as  this  sentence 
from  their  official  report  shows; — “Everywhere  we 
journeyed,  in  the  villages  and  towns  as  well  as  in  the 
cities,  delegations  of  prominent  officials  and  business 
men  delivered  addresses  to  us,  a  number  of  them  being 
in  English.”  The  representatives  of  the  Japanese 
Chambers  of  Commerce  will  return  this  friendly  call  in 
the  near  future.  And  I  wonder  how  many  of  our 
officials  and  business  men  will  welcome  them  in 
Japanese,  and  show  them  what  they  want  to  see  with 
explanations  in  their  native  tongue.  In  all  probability 
every  member  of  the  coming  Japanese  commissioners 
will  speak  English  to  some  degree,  some  of  them  with 
as  perfect  a  swing  as  Baron  Takahira  or  Dr.  Takamine. 

It  is  announced  that  an  exchange  of  editors  is 
planned  between  Japan  and  the  United  States.  We 
may  safely  say  that  among  the  American  editors  who 
are  to  visit  Japan,  there  will  not  be  one  who  can  read 
what  the  morning  papers  will  say  about  them  and  the 


10 


editorials  that  give  the  safe  clue  to  public  opinion. 
While  among  the  Japanese  editors  who  are  to  visit 
America  there  will  not  be  one  who  cannot  carry  on  a 
conversation  in  English  and  read  our  papers.  And 
several  of  them  doubtless  will  leave  valuable  impres¬ 
sions  on  large  and  appreciative  audiences  in  our 
cities  as  well  as  original  articles  in  our  principal 
magazines. 

Now  any  one  who  thinks  that  the  historic  friendship 
between  these  two  great  and  ambitious  peoples  is  per¬ 
fectly  safe  under  this  one-sided  intercourse  is,  I  fear, 
blind  to  the  trend  of  world  movements.  It  is  well 
to  have  international  visits,  for  they  help  to  change 
wrong  opinions.  As  the  able  Chairman  of  the  Com¬ 
missioners  of  the  Pacific  Coast  says  in  his  frank  re¬ 
port: — Before  visiting  the  Empire  of  Japan  none  of 
us  had  the  slightest  conception  of  the  sentiments 
which  the  people  of  that  country  bear  to  our  people. 

The  people  of  the  United  States  ought  to  be 
proud  of  the  friends  they  have  in  the  Far  East.”  And 
then  the  Report  ends  with  a  Resolution  that  amounts 
to  a  discovery : — 

“That  the  friendship  and  good  will  of  the  people 
of  the  Empire  of  Japan  towards  the  citizens  of  the 
United  States  is  unquestioned.” 

Thousands  of  tourists  visit  Japan,  among  whom  are 
some  of  our  choicest  scholars  and  officials  and  corre¬ 
spondents,  yet  they  have  to  get  their  facts  through 
interpreters.  I  do  not  deny  that  one  can  get  at  facts 
and  the  right  interpretation  of  them  without  the 
knowledge  of  the  language,  for  some  of  our  ablest 
diplomats  and  authors  are  of  that  class.  But  I  do 
not  hesitate  to  say  that  the  peaceful  development  of 
international  relations  and  real  friendship  between  the 
peoples  that  control  the  Pacific,  are  always  exposed, 
in  times  of  excitement,  to  gross  misunderstandings, 
which  when  exaggerated  become  a  huge  wave  of  dis¬ 
trust,  thus  giving  jingoes  and  demagogues  their  chance 
to  inflame  the  unthinking  and  to  flourish  their  sense¬ 
less  war  talk. 


I  have  spoken  mainly  of  Japan,  for  the  people  of 
this  land  are  our  neighbors,  whose  friendship  we 
must  strengthen  by  intellectual  sympathy  as  well  as 
by  commerce,  if  we  would  have  their  invaluable  aid  in 
solving  present  and  coming  world  problems.  It  is 
the  growing  belief  that  something  large  must  be  un¬ 
dertaken  as  soon  as  possible  for  international  edu¬ 
cation.  For  instance,  in  the  Prime  Minister’s  address 
before  that  “forever  memorable”  Seventeenth  Uni¬ 
versal  Peace  Congress  held  in  London,  July,  1908,  he 
said  with  all  the  emphasis  possible: — - 

“I  have  said  it  before,  but  I  would  say  it  again — 
the  main  thing  is  that  nations  should  get  to  know  and 
understand  one  another.'''' 

To  this  should  be  added  that  governments,  univer¬ 
sities,  churches,  chambers  of  commerce,  should  have 
some  definite  plan  of  raising  up  a  body  of  sympathetic 
scholars,  who  shall  be  first  hand  interpreters  of  one 
nation  to  the  other.  If  it  is  important  that  a  hundred 
American  students  should  be  sent  to  Oxford  in  order 
that  Americans  may  be  better  prepared  to  understand 
the  mother  country  with  the  same  language,  the  same 
religion,  the  same  political  institutions,  and  the  same 
family  life,  how  much  more  necessary  is  it  that  our 
universities  should  have  at  least  as  many  students  in 
Japanese  universities,  who  would  return  to  be  inter¬ 
preters  of  the  life  and  spirit  of  the  people,  and  who 
would  become  educators,  ministers,  judges,  and  con¬ 
gressmen  who  know  and  are  able  to  make  others  know 
the  truth  about  this  nation  with  such  a  different 
history,  such  a  different  moral  and  religious  evolu¬ 
tion. 

Arbitration  treaties,  interchange  of  professors,  inter¬ 
national  visits,  the  purification  of  international  law, 
peace  societies,  the  Hague  tribunal,  the  limitation  of 
armaments — all  these  are  splendid  manifestations  of 
the  coming  spirit  of  the  world,  but  they  will  never 
become  the  mighty  influence  they  ought  to  be  until 
the  nations  make  it  a  fundamental  duty  each  to  have 
its  own  body  of  scholarly  linguists  whose  great  busi- 


12 


ness  it  shall  be  “to  get  the  nations  to  know  and 
understand  one  another.” 

What  I  have  said  applies  with  even  more  force  when 
Great  China  with  her  four  hundred  millions  is  taken 
into  consideration.  For  nearly  a  century  we  have 
been  facing  this  wonderfully  great  and  dangerous 
problem  of  intercourse  with  China.  Apart  from  the 
missionary  movement,  the  main  American  thought 
seems  to  be  that  Chinese  students  should  come  to 
the  United  States  in  large  numbers  to  study  in  our 
institutions  and  thus  take  back  our  civilization  to 
China.  Everybody  welcomes  the  thought  of  having 
that  returned  indemnity  surplus  spent  in  educating 
scores  and  hundreds  of  Chinese  students  in  our  land. 

Mr.  Taft  is  made  to  say  in  a  New  York  paper: — 
“Frankness  compels  me  to  say  that  China  should 
send  more  young  men  to  study  conditions  here,  and 
work  for  the  improvement  of  their  country.  I  have 
often  met  Chinese  students  at  Yale  and  wished 
more  like  them  would  come  here.  I  think  Chinese 
educated  in  the  United  States  greatly  benefit 
China.” 

I  do  not  believe  that  Mr.  Taft  is  so  one-sided  as 
these  words  imply,  yet  we  must  confess  that  this  is 
the  American  idea.  I  would  like  to  add  to  the  above 
quotation  these  words: — I  think  American  students, 
with  post-graduate  training  in  China,  would  greatly 
benefit  America.  When  a  sufficient  number  of  our 
statesmen,  our  university  heads,  and  our  world  mer¬ 
chants  begin  to  think  of  this  necessity,  we  shall  have 
begun  one  practical  step  in  carrying  out  Prime  Minister 
Asquith’s  earnest  appeal  that  nations  get  to  know  and 
understand  one  another. 

We  Americans  are  not  the  only  ones  who  have  this 
one-sidedness  towards  the  East.  There  is  a  plan  in 
England  to  have  a  large  number  of  Japanese  go  to 
Oxford.  And  as  to  France,  my  morning  paper 
announces  that  Mr.  Albert  Kahn,  the  eminent  French 
financier,  on  his  visit  to  Japan,  donated  $10,000  to 
the  university  to  found  scholarships  for  promoting  the 


*3 


visits  of  Japanese  to  Europe.  All  of  which  is  most 
commendable,  and  such  international  kindness  will 
certainly  bear  good  fruit.  When,  however,  we  add 
that  there  are  probably  a  thousand  Japanese  who 
know  the  English  or  French  language  where  there  is 
one  Englishman  or  Frenchman  who  knows  Japanese, 
we  are  simply  stating  that  the  necessity  is  on  us  to 
have  a  movement  of  students  towards  the  East. 

If  it  be  true  that  Japan  knows  all  the  nations  beb 
ter  than  any  other  nation  does,  then  we  might  well 
recognize  Japan  as  the  teacher  of  nations  in  the  art  of 
knowing  and  understanding  one  another.  If  Japan 
had  not  had  thousands  of  scholars  educated  in  Amer¬ 
ica,  among  her  military  and  civil  officers,  on  her  daily 
press,  among  her  educators,  scattered  all  through  the 
the  country,  men  who  know  and  trust  the  real  heart 
of  America,  and  so  were  able  to  refute  the  slanders 
and  insinuations  of  our  agitators,  and  also  to  prevent 
the  influence  of  a  similar  class  in  Japan,  that  delight¬ 
ful  welcome  of  the  Commissioners  from  the  Pacific, 
and  that  amazing  welcome  of  our  fleet  would  have 
been  impossible.  And  it  would  have  been  impossible 
for  Premier  Marquis  Katsura  to  have  said  as  he  did 
with  emphasis  on  November  fourth,  “I  have  never 
doubted  the  sincere  friendship  of  the  United  States. 

In  Japan  both  government  and  people  are  abso- 
solutely  one  in  their  friendship  for  the  United  States,  and 
belief  in  your  friendship  for  us." 

It  is  this  vast  barrier  of  ignorance  of  the  languages 
and  therefore  of  the  heart  of  the  peoples  of  the  East 
that  constitutes  a  standing  peril  to  international  good 
will.  The  remedying  of  this  ignorance  is  one  of  the 
most  pressing  steps  to  be  taken  in  order  that  the  mil¬ 
lions  of  the  East  and  the  millions  of  the  West  may 
come  together  on  lines  of  mutual  friendship. 

J.  H.  De  Forest 

Sendai ,  Japan. 


14 


COUNCIL  OF  DIRECTION  OF  THE 
AMERICAN  ASSOCIATION  FOR  INTERNATIONAL  CONCILIATION 

Lyman  Abbott,  New  York. 

Charles  Francis  Adams,  Boston. 

Edwin  A.  Alderman,  Charlottesville,  Va. 

Charles  H.  Ames,  Boston,  Mass. 

Richard  Bartholdt,  M.  C.,  St.  Louis,  Mo. 

Clifton  R.  Breckenridge,  Fort  Smith,  Arkansas. 

William  J.  Bryan,  Lincoln,  Neb. 

T.  E.  Burton,  M.  C.,  Cleveland,  Ohio. 

Nicholas  Murray  Butler,  New  York. 

Andrew  Carnegie,  New  York. 

Edward  Cary,  New  York. 

Joseph  H.  Choate,  New  York. 

Richard  H.  Dana,  Boston,  Mass. 

Arthur  L.  Dasher,  Macon,  Ga. 

Horace  E.  Deming,  New  York. 

Charles  W.  Eliot,  Cambridge,  Mass. 

John  W.  Foster,  Washington,  D.  C. 

Roberta.  Franks,  Orange,  N.  J. 

Richard  Watson  Gilder,  New  York. 

John  Arthur  Greene,  New  York. 

James  M.  Greenwood,  Kansas  City,  Mo. 

Franklin  H.  Head,  Chicago,  III. 

William  J.  Holland,  Pittsburgh,  Pa. 

Hamilton  Holt,  New  York. 

James  L.  Houghtaling,  Chicago,  III. 

David  Starr  Jordan,  Stanford  University,  Cal. 

Edmond  Kelly,  New  York. 

Adolph  Lewisohn,  New  York. 

Seth  Low,  New  York. 

Clarence  H.  Mackay,  New  York. 

W.  A.  Mahony,  Columbus,  Ohio. 

Brander  Matthews,  New  York. 

W.  W.  Morrow,  San  Francisco,  Cal. 

George  B.  McClellan,  Mayor  of  New  York. 

Levi  P.  Morton,  New  York. 

Silas  McBee,  New  York. 

Simon  Newcomb,  Washington,  D.  C. 

Stephen  H.  Olin,  New  York. 

A.  V.  V.  Raymond,  Buffalo,  N.  Y. 

Ira  Remsen,  Baltimore,  Md. 

James  Ford  Rhodes,  Boston,  Mass. 

Howard  J.  Rogers,  Albany,  N.  Y. 

Elihu  Root,  Washington,  D.  C. 

J.  G.  Schurman,  Ithaca,  N.  Y. 

Isaac  N.  Seligman,  New  York. 

F.  J.  V.  Skiff,  Chicago,  III. 

William  M.  Sloane,  New  York. 

Albert  K.  Smiley,  Lake  Mohonk,  N.  Y. 

James  Speyer,  New  York. 

Oscar  S.  Straus,  Washington,  D.  C. 

Mrs.  Mary  Wood  Swift,  San  Francisco,  Cal. 

George  W.  Taylor,  M.  C.,  Demopolis,  Ala. 

O.  H.  Tittman,  Washington,  D.  C. 

W.  H.  Tolman,  New  York. 

Benjamin  Trueblood,  Boston,  Mass. 

Edward  Tuck,  Paris,  France. 

William  D.  Wheelwright,  Portland,  Ore. 


CONCILIATION  INTERNATIONALE 

119  Rue  de  la  Tour,  Paris,  France 

President  Fondateur,  Baron  D’Estournelles  de  Constant 
Member  Hague  Court,  Senator 

Honorary  Presidents  :  Berthelot  and  Leon  Bourgeois,  Senators 
Secretaries  General :  A.  Metin  and  Jules  Rais 
Treasurer:  Albert  Kahn 


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IRVING  PRESS,  NEW  YORK 


